Author. Educator. World traveler. Survivor.

These are more than labels—they are chapters in the story of Alexandra Hullquist, who writes under the name Alix Wiebe. Her debut memoir, Finding Katie: Lost and Found in Plain Sight, is a profound account of emotional unraveling, resilience, and spiritual rediscovery that’s already stirring conversations among readers looking for more than just a story—they’re looking for truth.

It’s not just another trauma-to-triumph narrative. Finding Katie stands apart for its emotional precision, vulnerability, and the sense that you’re reading something both deeply personal and universally relatable. It’s the story of someone who was never visibly broken, but was silently lost.

A Life Lived Around the World

Hullquist’s life has spanned more than just years—it has spanned continents. Born in the United States, her childhood took her across Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Puerto Rico, and eventually Nepal, Sri Lanka, Canada, Korea, and Russia. Her experiences aren’t just travel anecdotes—they’re stitched into the emotional and spiritual fabric of her story.

“My identity was shaped by so many places and people,” she shared in a recent interview. “And yet, for much of my life, I felt completely disconnected from myself.”

Despite the seeming richness of her early life—professional parents, a loving community, a Christian upbringing—there was a fracture that started young. Childhood abuse, masked behind normalcy, created a slow drift from her authentic self. The kind of trauma that doesn’t always scream. The kind that hides in plain sight.

Katie: A Name. A Persona. A Lifeline.

Hullquist’s choice to tell her story through “Katie” isn’t about creating distance. It’s about honesty. Katie is the version of herself that was lost along the way—a younger self she writes from and for.

In Finding Katie, we watch Katie navigate the dissonance between outer appearances and inner chaos. The memoir traces her path through early abuse, spiritual pressure, a controlling marriage, and years of internal exile—until finally, she begins the return to herself.

Hullquist isn’t afraid to describe the messy middle: the years of confusion, silence, and self-doubt. But what makes the memoir remarkable is that she doesn’t leave us there.

“I couldn’t write the book until I had a happy ending,” she admitted. That ending came in the form of personal healing and a second marriage that became a safe space for growth, love, and restoration. “When I married Gary, that’s when I knew I could finally finish this.”

Lost in Plain Sight

The book’s subtitle—Lost and Found in Plain Sight—perfectly captures the paradox many readers will recognize in themselves. Hullquist writes about performing the role of the “together” woman while internally falling apart. She explores the concept of being outwardly functional but inwardly fractured, a theme that resonates especially with women who’ve learned to suppress pain in order to survive.

“I looked fine. I acted fine. But inside, I was screaming,” she said.

It’s this contradiction—the polished shell and the hidden struggle—that makes the memoir so compelling. Hullquist doesn’t sanitize her pain, nor does she dramatize it. She tells it plainly, and in doing so, it hits harder.

Writing from Faith, Not Perfection

One of the defining features of Finding Katie is its spiritual lens. Hullquist writes as a woman of faith, but not as someone offering neat theological answers. Her spirituality is marked by questions, pain, and a return to grace, not the kind you earn, but the kind you collapse into.

The book opens with a dedication to “all the women in the world who are lost, broken, and chained in plain sight,” and it never loses sight of them. Hullquist doesn’t write to impress. She writes to be free.

Her prose is elegant but unpretentious, introspective yet accessible. Readers won’t find a list of lessons at the end. Instead, they’ll find something more powerful: a mirror.

A Memoir Built for Impact

Hullquist wrote the book primarily for women, but with the understanding that emotional isolation and loss of identity are not gendered experiences. Anyone who has felt the weight of silence, shame, or spiritual confusion will find resonance in Katie’s story.

Over the years, Hullquist consumed countless memoirs by others trying to reclaim their identities. “They didn’t all give me answers,” she said. “But they gave me permission to write my own. That was enough.”

Now, she’s paying that gift forward.

The Message Behind the Memoir

What Finding Katie ultimately offers isn’t just insight into one woman’s past, but an invitation to look honestly at our own. It’s a reminder that we can be wounded and still worthy. That silence doesn’t mean consent. And that it’s never too late to reclaim our story, no matter how far we’ve drifted from ourselves.

The book is honest, yes. But it’s also deeply hopeful. Hullquist doesn’t promise healing will be easy. She simply proves that it’s possible.

Alexandra Hullquist’s Finding Katie: Lost and Found in Plain Sight is available now through Two Roads Publishing (ISBN: 978-1-967178-05-6).

If you’ve ever felt like you were disappearing behind a smile, this book just might be the voice calling you home.